Subtle Body and Atma / Sri Aurobindo
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 6 years before Nov 06, 2018
MiBeloved 6 years ago
Alfredo Delregato, MS, CIH, FLAC, FMA • Thanks Michael B!
Sri Aurobindo posited the existence of a part of the Atman, of the same substance and quality, which he named the Psychic Being. This portion accumulates the experiences of the individual, and it becomes the evolving soul.
According to him, the pure self (Atman, Jivatman, Para Pakriti) is unborn, does not go through birth and death, is independent of mind, body, life or this manifested nature (apara pakriti). The soul, comes down into birth and passes through death, without dying itself, for it is immortal, it goes from one state to another, from the earth plane to other planes and back again to earth. Through this evolution, up to the human, the soul evolves through it a being which he called the Psychic Being (caitya purusha). It is veiled till the time when it is ready to come out from behind and turn the instrumental nature towards a divine fulfillment.
Question: The astral body that you refer to...is that this Psychic Being?
MiBeloved’s Response:
I don’t like the word pure in reference to the atman, jivatma. It is a loaded word and causes all sorts of misleading connotations. If it means the isolated individual self which is isolated from the adjuncts which it finds itself fused to when it is manifested in the subtle and gross material creation, then I would accept it. Otherwise no. If it means something pure, then I am not going along with it.
For instance in this world we find gold ore, we find iron ore. Are these pure gold and pure iron?
I will let you decide.
I prefer to say the isolated atman, which is isolated from the influence of the subtle and gross material nature.
Yes, the psychic being as Sri Aurobindo described is the subtle body which is used by the atma during the transmigrations. It is formed immediately as soon as the atma leaves the causal plane of existence. It stays with the atma and goes through transformations according to the species of life it is fused into.
In my books I use the word psyche as a more accurate word for it. The atma or core-self, the limited spiritual particle of personality, lives in that psyche with other psychic phenomena like the buddhi (intellect) smrtih (memory, kundalini (life force and chakra energy distribution system), indriyas (sense detection mechanisms) and a slight register of the causal body (hridaya).
There is one thing and I don’t know what Sri Aurobindo said about it but the descent of the atma is not the same as the descent of the paramatma. The atma descends and learns something from the association it has with the raspy material nature. The paramatma also descends but has nothing to learn from material nature. That is the difference between the two.
It is not true that the paramatma needs the atmas to descend so that the said paramatma (God) can experience through the atmas. That it totally incorrect.
The reason for the descent of the atmas is that their nature requires that they learn from the prakriti. Patanjali explained their descent in another way like this:
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draṣṭā dṛśimātraḥ śuddhaḥ api pratyayānupaśyaḥ
tadarthaḥ eva dṛśyasya ātma
kṛtārthaṁ prati naṣṭam api
anaṣṭaṁ tadanya sādhāraṇatvāt
sva svāmiśaktyoḥ svarūpa upalabdhi hetuḥ saṁyogaḥ
tasya hetuḥ avidyā
tad abhāvāt saṁyogā abhāvaḥ
hānaṁ taddṛśeḥ kaivalyam
The perceiver is the pure extent of his consciousness but his conviction is patterned by what is perceived.
The individual spirit who is involved in what is seen exists here for that purpose only.
It is not effective for one to whom its purpose is fulfilled but it has a common effect on the others.
There is a reason for the conjunction of the individual self and his psychological energies. It is for obtaining the experience of his own form.
The cause of the conjunction is spiritual ignorance.
The elimination of the conjunction which results from the elimination of that spiritual ignorance is the withdrawal that is the total separation of the perceiver from the mundane psychology. (Yoga Sutras 2.20-25)
He also says this elsewhere:
sattva puruṣayoḥ atyantāsaṁkīrṇayoḥ
pratyayaḥ aviśeṣaḥ bhogaḥ parārthatvāt
svārthasaṁyamāt puruṣajñānam
sattva – intelligence energy of material nature; puruṣayoḥ – of the individual spirit; atyanta – excessively, extremely, very; asaṁkīrṇayoḥ – of what is distinct or separate; pratyayaḥ – mental content, awareness within the psyche; aviśeṣaḥ – not distinct, inability to distinguish; bhogaḥ – experience; parārthatvāt – what is apart from another thing; svārtha – one own, self interest; saṁyamāt – from the complete restraint of the mento-emotional energy; puruṣa – individual spirit; jñānam – knowledge.
Experience results from the inability to distinguish between the individual spirit and the intelligence energy of material nature, even though they are very distinct. By complete restraint of the mento-emotional energy while focusing on self-interest distinct from the other interest, a yogi gets knowledge of the individual spirit.
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The Paramatma never had these inabilities but still it descends. Its basis for descent is different to that of the atmas.
Patanjali hinted at the reason in the verse where he said that ishwar was the teacher of the ancient yogis even.
In a rush to either be God or to merge and be one with God, people are drawing very rash conclusions about their God nature and God status, even though there is no evidence anywhere to prove it.
